USS SKAGIT PICTURES

PICTURES OF THE SHIPSHIP'S OPERATIONSAND THE CREW

This page is graphic intensive
and
may take awhile to load
please be patient

"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong and the free.
Heed my call. Come to the sea. Come sail with me."

Prior to a yard period sometime in the mid '50s, the Maru still had a Crows Nest atop the forward A Frame.
The crows nest was enclosed for protection from the weather, with a hatch to gain access to the Lookout position.
In the Nest was a set of Sound Powered Phones for communication with the Bridge, and little else.
It was a scary climb up the 60 foot ladder with the ship rolling and wind blowing, but that's what sailors did way back when.
The Nest had an opening about 18-24 inches wide and 10-12 inches high for the lookout to see forward, with no rear opening.
I remember having the watch up there going under the Golden Gate Bridge coming back from a far east tour.

SKAGIT'S LCVPs
(HIGGINS BOATS)
IN SOME ROUGH WATER
Wonsan Korea October 12-16,1952

Photo: John Ahern

Darrell Daugherty and crew in LCVP 13

This picture was taken by an Ensign in the boat just ahead of us. Sorry, I can't recall his name.
We were on a mock invasion off the coast of Wonson North Korea in 1952, there were many other ships involved in the operation. Aircraft Carriers, Cruisers, Destroyers, and a Battleship.
The aircraft from the Carrier dive bombed targets ashore, and some rounds of fire from the North Korean guns were hitting the water ahead of us, we turned around before we got to the surf and headed back to the ship.
It got really rough going back to the ship,some boats had a hard time getting aboard in the rough sea.
Sorry that I can't remember the other boat crews or which one my friend John Ahern was in.
Any other crew members that remember that operation, please let me know.
Darrell Daugherty

Korea
12-16 October 1952
The Kojo Amphibious Feint carried out during this period. More than 100 ships, with strong air support from five carriers, carried out the hoax to the extent of launching empty landing craft toward the beaches at Kojo on 15 October (D- Day). The purposes of the operation were to-
(1) provide invaluable training in planning and executing a major amphibious operation, and
(2) lure enemy defense forces into the open in their haste to cover their exposed right flank, thus allowing a field day for planes of TF 77. While the valuable training was obtained, a final analysis showed that enemy forces were not drawn into the open.

For more information on this operation,and the Korean War Naval Chronology,September to December 1952

These pictures were taken during another large scale re-enactment of the landing on Iwo Jima.

Some exerpts from a letter dated, Iwo Jima, Sunday 11/11/56, 1:00 PM. .......yesterday they had the boats in the water and I had about 16 hrs. in the engine room from midnite Friday. until midnite last night.
They offloaded Marines and equipment but didn't go into the beach.......some of Magoffin's (APA 199) boats did, and 2 boats were lost, the surf was so bad.
The "invasion" is set for tomorrow AM, "D" day, and all troops & equipment will go in and stay for a couple days then we should leave here Friday or Saturday.

Joe

Pictures: C. A. Rush - Caption: Joe Toth

Yard Period 1956

In 1956, Skagit was scheduled to go into dry dock for repairs and maintenance in Bremerton Washington.
This was cancelled at the last minute, and instead the ship was sent to Pearl Harbor for overhaul.
The Officers, and Petty Officers were allowed to bring their wives, and children aboard, and they were taken by Skagit to Pearl Harbor, put in base housing and returned to the states when the overhaul was completed.

During the summer of 1963 the ship sailed to Portland Oregon for repair and upkeep, upon completion, Skagit headed north to Puget Sound, and Vancouver Canada.

Along the way, she delivered two guns that were obtained by the Washington State Department of Parks and Recreation to replace the guns that were removed after WWII. The guns were originally emplaced at Fort Wint, Subic Bay, Phillipine Islands.

The 3-inch guns went to Fort Flagler's Battery Wansboro, and mounted for display.

I took this picture of Skagit from the deck of the USS Magoffin as we steamed from Long Beach, California to Okinawa. We departed Long Beach on August 23, 1965, the photo was probably taken in the first few days of the voyage. I recall that for most of the trip we were out of sight of the rest of the ships that sailed with us.

Bob Ingraham
3rd Battalion, 1st Marines

Bill Neiman BM2

I served six years on USS Skagit. This picture was taken after a long day in Vietnam. To all my ship mates.....the USS Skagit was a big part of my life and I have some great memories from all the years I spent with my crew mates. These were some of the best years and I will never forget! I hope everybody is doing well, and keep the slack out of #1 line.

Bill

Vietnam 1965

Pat McDonald RM2 and James Kirkendall RDSN
playing on the fantail off the coast of Vietnam.

Skagit received new MK 6 Mike Boats sometime after returning to the states in 1966. The old boats had so many holes in them and they were about worn out.
The new boats were outfitted with hydraulic starters and they seemed to work pretty good.
In preparation for another tour in Vietnam, they mounted two 50 cal. machine guns on the boats, and the cox'n was issued an M1-Garand.
The first thing a cox'n does to make it "his" boat is adding things that were non-regulation, such as putting my signal flag number on the radio box, painting the names of the crew on the sides of the con, we even made extra tie-up lines and marked them with blue and white paint so we could keep track of them.
I knew that we were going to be spending a lot of time on the boats running the rivers and delivering cargo and I wanted my boat to be comfortable to work on. We had extra coffee, sugar, food packs, clean clothes stowed in an extra 50 cal. ammo box, a pancho to streach across the top of the con during rainy weather so the crew could get inside and keep dry.

Here is a picture of Skagit in dry dock in Sasebo Japan.
We had been moving from one dock to another in the harbor when a camel next to the dock struck the screw, (or someone engaged the screw and it struck the camel?). The results were that the screw and the shaft cracked and it took many weeks to do the repairs.
The crew seemed to enjoy all the great liberty while in Sasebo.

Dan Jenkins (RM2)

Photo: Dan Jenkins

The following pictures are provided by - -
Bob West, and Earl Bates
of the
40th Infantry Division